Silver to Gold
by Eugene6022
Summary: Johnny is no longer Johnny. He is no Jenny after just a couple hours in the operating room. All he ever wanted to do was be a girl, and now he has that chance. But what if Jenny ends up hurting the ones she loves most? Will telling the gang her secret help them or hurt them?


**Ok, for some reason fanfiction hates me, and when I publish a story it does go to the beginning of the feed. I am the same person as erf 10722 but that account is being weird so..Sorry for the confusion.**

**I don't own the outsiders. **

Johnny hated stereotypes. In fact (he reflected one cold winter night in the lot) if no one judged anyone else, life might be almost bearable for the teen. Of course, Johnny knew that he was not blameless of judging. Before he knew what he was, Johnny had been mean to this gay kid at their school. He had mostly done it because at that time he was still trying to fit in with the gang, but looking back on it, Johnny was ashamed.

He knew that, if anyone ever found out what he was about to do, they would try to kill him, let alone pay him decent human compassion.

He hated that he had to lie to the gang. He hated that the doctor had to deliver the news "Your friend Johnny is dead. I'm sorry, we did everything we could." Of course, while the doctor said this, Johnny would be in a very experimental surgery, ready to change his life forever.

He nodded at himself in the mirror, not trying to look tough in the privacy of his hospital room bathroom. The doctors said that they wouldn't have to change any facial features, unless he wanted them too. Johnny already looked so much like a girl.

He had a thin, tanned face with long thick lashes. If he had been born a girl, he would be considered beautiful, but as a boy, people thought him weak.

A surgeon knocked on the door, a grim expression on his face.

"Are you ready Johnny?" The kid smiled at the doctor, excited and nervous, but sure that he would have no regrets.

"Would you mind not calling me Johnny anymore?" The doctor shrugged.

"Of course...er...what should I call you then? I never really know how to deal with...this."

"Jennifer? Jenny for short." Jenny _had _liked her birth name, and she had loved how the gang had called her "Johnnycakes." She would honor that with her new name.

"Ok than Jenny. Let's get you into that surgery room."

* * *

Johnny was dead. Only an hour after he had arrived at the hospital, the doctor had emerged, shaking his head.

Luckily, Dally was still asleep. He had only hours left until his world would come crashing down around his ears. Ponyboy didn't have that luxury.

He sniffled, but kept up his countenance as he walked around the park, aimlessly. Johnny had pushed Pony on that swing when they were younger. Johnny had broken his wrist falling out of that tree. Johnny had killed a boy, only a week ago, at that fountain.

Pony shuddered. He couldn't think about it. He didn't _want _to think about it. He almost wished that he could forget Johnny.

Johnny. He had dies over a week ago, but the pain was still fresh. Pony shuddered again. "I want to die." He mumbled. It scared him that he meant it.

"You can't kill yourself!" An alarmed voice rang out. Pony wondered if it were just in his head, but then he saw a girl standing in the shadows.

She had short, glossy, ungreased hair. Her eyes were dark brown, and sorrowful, as though they had seen more than anyone ever should.

When Pony first saw her, he gasped. He ran towards the teen and hugged her.

"Johnnycakes. I thought you were dead!"

"What? I-" Pony let go suddenly. The voice was the same, she looked like him, but...she was a girl. The one defining feature that made Pony's patched up world come tumbling down again.

"You-you aren't Johnny." Pony saw something flash through the girl's eyes, then she said confusedly,

"Who?"

"My friend. He just died." Pony's voice cracked badly on the last word. The girl's eyes were filled with real compassion, not something you see every day.

"I'm sorry P- er..." Pony looked at the girl curiously.

"Man, you sure do look like Johnny. Exactly like him. Do you have a brother?"

"Not that I know of."

"Not that you know of? How can you not know if you have a brother?"

"I was raised on the streets. I don't know my parents. But you don't look like you live on the streets. where's your family?"

"I live around." Although Pony didn't use his head often, he wasn't stupid. Kids that lived on the street were dangerous. Strange people in general were dangerous. Than a thought occurred to Pony.

"Are you a greaser? You can't be a Soc if you were raised on the streets, but you don't wear grease. My friend Dally..." But he trailed off. Thinking of Dally made Pony sad almost as much as thinking of Johnny.

"What about Dally?" The girl's voice was sharp and harsh, sounding much more like someone who was raised on the streets and was tough as nails. Pony shook his head. the girl made a sound halfway between a snort and a growl.

"Listen Pony, tell me where Dally is." the girl practically clamped her hand over her mouth. Pony looked curiously at her.

"How do you know my name? And how do you know Dally?"

"Dally and I go way back. And your name is written on your shirt." Pony looked down. He was indeed wearing an old cross country shirt with his name and number on it.

"Well, if you really are a friend of Dally's, he's still in the hospital. He and my friend were in the same fire, and Dally hasn't been dismissed from the hospital." Pony checked his watch and sighed. "But he probably knows about Johnny by now."

The girl nodded and started at a brisk walk towards the street. "Wait!" Pony called after her. "What's your name?"

The girl turned and gave him a breezy smile that sparked so many memories of Johnny. "Jennifer. Call me Jenny."

And then, Jenny took of sprinting in the direction of the hospital.

* * *

Jenny fumed as she ran towards Buck's. the hospital had told her that Dally had left about half an hour ago, right after he heard the news of Johnny.

"Dally!" She shouted furiously and stupidly, forgetting that she was in the middle of a dangerous street. Consequently, when she began to move forward, she felt a hand around her mouth, cutting off her breathing.

"MHH!" She screamed, but it was muffled, and if anyone did care, they wouldn't have helped anyway.

"Shut up little girl." She recognized the voice, but she wasn't sure why. "What are ya shouting Dally's name for? Who are you?"

Than Jenny pieced everything together. "Tim." She sighed. "Tim, get the fuck off of me, or else I swear, I will kick you in the balls." As much as Johnny had been too weak to be a boy, Jenny was too tough to be a girl, although equally kind.

"You don't scare me." Although he had taken his hand away from her mouth and clamped it instead around her upper arm.

"One." She positioned her foot. "Two." She envisioned the spot where she would need to kick. "Thr-"

"Shepard, what the hell are you doing man?" Jenny was half relieved, half disappointed when she heard Dally's voice. Mostly relieved, because it meant he was alive and well, but disappointed because she had _always _wanted to kick Tim Douche Shepard in the soft spot.

"This girl was shouting your name."

"Well, if she was shouting my name she probably knows me." Dallas came into the glow of the streetlamp, and Jenny gasped.

He looked awful. He had bags under his eyes, and his eyes were puffy and red from _crying. _"Dally! What happened to you?"

Dally narrowed his eyes at Jenny. "Never seen her. Probably hooked up with her when I was drunk. Just putting it out there, you don't want to go to jail Tim. You'll miss the funeral."

"What, for your friend Johnny? Never liked him much." There was hatred in Dally's eyes that Jenny had never seen there before.

Dally pushed Jenny out of the way and began to punch Tim with every ounce of strength he possessed. "Don't." He threw a punch for ever word he said. "...Talk. About. Johnny. Like. That."

Memories came floating in the back of Jenny's mind. "Don't hit him Joseph! He's only three!" "Get out of the way Miranda. The boy deserves it."

Jenny felt her legs collapse from underneath her. She put her hands over her ears and began to rock back in forth. She couldn't block out her own thoughts, and she began to whimper.

The sounds that her ears could dimly hear had stopped, but the cries of her "parents" still sounded in her mind.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her back. It was rubbing gently, in a circular motion that had always calmed her down. He whimpering subsided, and she brushed away her tears, still huddled in a tight ball.

"It's ok kid." She recognized the voice, but it sounded far away, as if in a dream. Her parents voices were real. All too real.

"Mom! Dad! No!" She screamed once, then the yells in her head stopped, and her breathing became easier. She poked her head out of the ball, much like a turtle, and then the shaking began.

Dally continued to murmur, just like he had done when he was alive. "It's ok. Don't worry. I'm here Joh-" Then he realized that it wasn't Johnny, just some girl who looked and acted exactly like him.

"Sorry." Jenny whispered, and Dallys cold heart filled with renewed hope.

"What's your name kid?"

"Jenny."

"Do you want a ride home or something? I don't know how you know me, but you do. I doubt we had sex. You don't look the type."

Jenny shivered at the crude and tactless words Dally said, and gave an indignant squeak that made Dally _smile_. "Man, you sound just like him. Anyway, want me to take you home?" Dally repeated.

Jenny hesitated, then whispered modestly, "I don't have a home. Not one I can go back to anyway."

"Ok. Where are you sleeping?"

"Empty lot on the East side." Dally winced.

"That's real cold. Need a place to sleep? I live at my friend Buck's. He's kind of a party animal, and it's as uncomfortable as hell, but at least it's warm."

Jenny hesitated than nodded. "Thanks Dally."

Dally smiled again. That special smile that he had always reserved for Johnnycakes Cade.


End file.
